


The Science of Discontent

by LadyVisenya



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: steve thinks he's dustins cool older brother but dustin thinks of him as a lame older brother, steves having a rough time after high school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 10:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12815994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyVisenya/pseuds/LadyVisenya
Summary: Steve and Dustin find a stray cat.





	The Science of Discontent

Steve sort of just assumed everything would work out. Things always did. Sure, he was never passing anything but Basketball with flying colors, but he usually scraped at least a c in most of his classes. English was a bitch. Steve was never going to be an A student like Nancy, but he was a solid B student, in all his required classes because fuck AP. He figured that college would be just the same. 

It never entered his mind that he might not get into his first choice, or second choice, or even his third choice. Steve just sort of figured he’d get in. 

He doesn’t. 

And his old man will only pay for his college if he goes into finance, another thing that Steve didn’t think about. So that fall, he ends up attending the community college next town over, renting out a room from Chief Hopper and working at the worlds shittiest diner while even fucking Tommy got to leave Hawkins, UC Berkeley as an accounting major. 

The smell of french fries and grease is impossible to get out of his clothes. Steve, who never breaks out, starts getting pimples from being around oil so often. He nearly cries in the shower when he’s using an exfoliator and feels the tell tale bump on the side of his nose. 

The worst part is trying to avoid Nancy and Jonathan who didn’t seem to understand he doesn’t want their pity and reassurances that everything will work out if he works hard. Nancy keeps dropping by with the transfer requirements for all the colleges she thinks he might want to go to. Jonathan, who is the king of avoidance, tries asking him to hang out, which he knows that Nancy probably put him up to. He tries to get Steve to talk about what he might want to do, which has Nancy Wheeler written all over it. 

The thing is, Steve doesn’t know how to work hard, he’s never had to. He has always been able to cruise his way through life and he never learned how to work hard like Nancy. He doesn’t have a hobby or passion like Jonathan. Neither or them get it. 

Nancy’s a shoe in for any place she applies to and Jonathan already planned on going to community college so he could stay with his brother for another two years before transferring to some fancy ass art school. He’s the only one who’s lost and completely out of his depth. He doesn’t know what he wants to study and he has to decide soon and he just wants to lay in bed all day. 

It’s hard work avoiding them both when he’s always running into Mike or Will on their way to get El, or when Jonathan comes drop off El, or when Hopper asks if he wants to go eat dinner at the Byers where he knows Nancy will be there with more preteens than he can remember the names of. 

Most days, Steve can’t even bother to go to class. It’s just community college and he didn’t think he’d feel this bad about going to community college last spring when he turned down his dad’s offer of Indian State. Steve had thought he could do it. He really did, but he hates it here. He hates being left behind. He hates being such a loser. He hates feeling like a complete and utter fuck up. 

Washed up as eighteen. 

It’s two months into the semester and he hasn’t made any friends or been invited to any parties and he hates himself. Steve’s pretty sure he’s only spoken to one student in his english class and that was to ask for his pencil back. 

It’s pathetic. 

“No Farah Fawcett spray today,” Dustin asks, as he slides up to the counter. The heat from the kitchen makes his hair fall anyway, so there’s no point in wasting it. No matter how many times Steve had ignored Dustin at work, the kid still comes by. 

Steve hates when people he knows come see him, especially the time Billy had come by and he’d had to make his burger three times because _the customer is always right_. 

“Where’s the other little shits,” he asks, low enough so that Connor, who Steve knows still lives with his parents and has been in community college for five years and thinks he’s the fucking manager, doesn’t hear. Dustin never goes anywhere without at least one other friend. They seem to be everywhere Steve looks. 

Dustin shrugs before changing the subject abruptly, “gonna hook me up with some fries Harrington?”

“You’re gonna get me fired dipshit,” he hisses, before filling up a water cup with sprite and handing it to the kid. “Give me a second and I’ll see what I can do,” he adds before Dustin makes a scene. 

The kid smirks wickedly, “like it would be easy to get fired from this dump.” Steve could hit him, but figures he should at least get him the fries first. 

The moment Connor turns to check the salad bar, in a fucking burger joint who thought this was a good idea, Steve sticks up an order and throws more fries than a small should be along with putting burger down. Dustin is a heathen who eats his burgers plain. Not even with any sauce, just the meat and bun. 

When he actually walks the up to the table Dustin’s at instead of just calling out the number like he usually would and wait while all the idiots refuse to look at their number and then proceed to yell at Steve that he never called their number, he figure’s that’s it. El had said that she was going to play at the arcade with Max and Lucas. He assumed that meant all their little gang. 

But Dustin devours the burger, probably having biked all the way here, to the edge of town. Steve can’t believe that he’s such a loser that Dustin, a middle schooler, is his only friend. 

Nancy and Jonathan had only come by once, and Steve had very awkwardly and with none of the stealth he was going for, locked himself in the bathroom for half an hour, using up his break, to avoid them. He knows they were only there for him. There was a mcdonald’s right in town now, right next to the mall that was going to open in the spring. 

No one drives to the end of town for these shitty thin burgers. 

Still, Steve isn’t one to turn down free food now that he actually has to pay for his shit, carefully hoarding up all his tips and crying every time he has to pay for another class, another textbook. He still hasn’t even decided his major. 

Everything starts being too much. His breathes too sort and painful, teeth clenching as Steve tries to calm down. He can’t get enough air. It feels like he’s dying and he wants to scream and cry and curl up on the floor but he’s in public and he’s not that far gone yet. 

His eyes burn and he refuses to cry right now. There’s only two more hours left of his shift. Just two hours and he can go home-to Hoppers and curl up in his tiny room on the bed that’s really a futon. 

It’s too much to go to classes. Steve can’t bring himself to care, but skipping just makes him freak out, watching the clock and hating himself, why didn’t he just go. It was literally his own money he was wasting. But he can’t force himself out of bed most days, not even brushing his hair before work. 

Dying would be easier than this. 

A few more customers come by, all for take out and Steve is so glad he has something to keep him occupied for a second. Connor hisses at him, complaining about how he only let the fries cook for thirteen minutes instead of fifteen, giving him a dirty look when he gives the customers more than two packets of ketchup. 

When the mini rush dies down, Connor slips into the back for a smoke and leaves Steve to man the place by himself. 

Dustin’s still there, eating his fries slowly and carefully, a small miniature of one of his action figures in hand. Steve use to make fun of kids like that. It always got a laugh out of his friends. 

That probably says a lot about Steve and his poor life choices. 

Steve, who didn’t grow a backbone until after calling his girlfriend a slut. Too little, too late. He’s starting to think that might be his whole life. 

“Refill,” he asks Dustin, while he wipes a table that’s already clean to begin with. The kid deserves to have someone better than him, someone who could have actually kicked Billy’s ass. This is the least he could do for him. 

“Yeah but coke this time Harrington.”

“What the fuck shit head,” he hisses, “I already gave you a burger and fries. Getting way too greedy there.”

“What’s the fucking point of you working here if you can’t hook a man up.”

“First of all you’re like five,” Steve replies, snatching the cup out of Dustin’s hand and going to fill it with Sprite. Somethings rats won’t do. Nancy had said it once when they were studying. He hadn’t gotten it at the time, even when she explained it to him, but the words had stuck with him. 

“And second of all,” Dustin teases when he comes back with the soda. 

“Ha ha,” he snaps, “don’t be a smart ass.”

Steve wipes all the tables again, and again. Half of his job is cleaning already clean places. Sunday nights are ridiculously slow. Steve prefers when his job is busy and he doesn’t have to think about anything. 

By the time he’s closing with Conor, who insists on checking all the tables and finds imaginary greasy stains on the corner table and yells at him while Steve just takes it because he’s tired and just wants to go home, Dustin has disappeared. 

He figures the kid’s gone home. Dustin has school tomorrow and while his mom is lenient, she’ll be sure to freak out if her son doesn’t come home before ten. Joyce would probably be the first one to freak out, and Dustin’s not even her son. 

There’s no one to freak out over him, never has been. He’d always thought his parents had had a son because they thought they were supposed to, not because they actually wanted one. That would explain the never being around. 

Connor gets into his mom’s waiting van and nothing makes Steve feel better than Connor. No matter what, at least Steve isn’t still living with his parents and having them drive him around. His only friend might be a middle schooler who thinks playing some dumb board game is fun, but at least his mom doesn’t drive him to and from work. 

And Dustin had saved all their asses down there. 

And he’d actually cared about Steve’s hair care regime, unlike Nancy who’d just laughed at him fondly. 

So it wasn’t all bad. Hopper was barely charging him anything in rent and El always made them all breakfast, always eggos with jam and butter. She’d call family meals and family meetings with all the joy and wonder only a kid could have. 

Jim had even asked him how his classes were going. Sure, that had almost made him want to die on the spot, but Hopper hadn’t meant it like that. 

“Harrington,” a familiar voice calls out from behind him. Steve will never admit it but he screams, dropping the bag full of food he’s taking home. El and Hopper both love it when Steve brings them food, but Jim will also tell him not to bring too much because it’s already hard enough to get El to eat food that’s healthy and not just eggos. “I think there’s a cat down here,” Dustin tells him from where he’s laying on his belly by the dumpster. The kid looks up at him with his wide brown eyes that are still so kind and happy despite having to battle literal monsters and all the other bullshit that the department of energy has put them through. 

“So,” Steve says, sighing. He already knows whats going to happen, what he’s going to get dragged into. At least this time it’s a cat and not a cat eating demogorgon. He hopes. 

“Make yourself useful and help me draw it out,” Dustin huffs, shaking his head at Steve. “Hand me a burger. Cats like burgers right?”

“How the hell would I know? Didn’t you have a cat?”

“It was my mom’s,” he cries, “you are no help, seriously dude.” Dustin gets up and snatches the bag off the ground, yanking the beef patty out of a burger, making a face at the lettuce and tomato. 

Steve follows him over to the dumpster and leans down at Dustin throws a piece of the patty in. “Are you sure there’s a-“

He gets caught off by a quiet meow. 

“See,” Dustin hisses. “Now help me.”

He does, calling out to the cat. “Here kitty, kitty. Who’s a nice cat. Oh my god I’m going to get fleas. I can’t afford to get fleas.”

“Is that why your hair sucks,” Dustin says. 

“Fuck off.”

The cat slowly walked out from under the dumpster. Its fur is matted and too dirty for Steve to know what color its fur is. One ear is partially bitten from who knows what. It only takes a second for Dustin to announce, “I’m keeping it.”

“Of course you are.” Of course he wants the zombie cat that looks like it’s about to fall dead any minute probably crawling with fleas. 

“Can you give me a ride home?”

“Shouldn’t we take it to the vet first?”

“What vet’s going to be open at nine at night!”

Steve huffs, “It was just a suggestion dick head!”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Dustin slides into his car with too much familiarity then he should have while Steve throws the kids bike in the back along with the boxes of stuff he hasn’t yet unpacked. That would be too much like admitting he’s living with the sheriff and still stuck here. 

There’s only two vets in Hawkins and the first one they go to is closed. With his luck, of course they’re closed. That mean’s they have to drive all the way out to the entrance of the regional park. 

He tries not to think about how much gas he’s wasting. 

“I think it’s so cute that you’d drive your brother out here at this time of night,” the vet says only after she’s charged him a small fortune for a check up, deworming, and all the medicine the dumb kitten needs to not die on them.

“We’re not-,” they both protest loudly. But she’s already gone to rob someone else of their cash for flea medicine. Steve feels like he just got robbed. He’s also feeling betrayed by how loud Dustin protests. He’s still cool. Right? Not a complete loser at the very least? 

“I’m going to call you Maud’Dib,” Dustin decides as Steve hands over half of his check. 

“I can’t believe that’s what you’re naming that cat,” he says. Poor cat. 

“It’s from-“

“Some lame comic? Like not even Batman or Spiderman but like-”

“Fuck you,” Dustin snaps. “It’s Dune and it’s basically the best thing since Lord of the Rings so.” He gives Steve a look that says you’re dumb but I’m going to be nice to you and not say anything because you look rough. 

“Sure it is.” Not his most eloquent response but its late and he just wants to lay down. 

“I’ll let you borrow it and then you can see for yourself.”

“Do I look like I read!”

Dustin gives him a patronizing smile, “I’m sure I could teach you to read Harrington. That’s nothing to be ashamed of dude. Being able to read words is a very serious issue.”

“Fine,” he snaps, “I’ll read your dumb book.”

Dustin smiles they get back in his car. The cat already looks much better, tawny black and grey under all that dirt. Her ear’s clipped from god knows what, but she no longer looks like a zombie cat. Steve resists the urge to pet the damn thing. 

The kid starts to eat the cold fries, “they need more salt.”

“You’ve got to stop biting the hand that feeds. You’ve got to be a lot more grateful. Like, do you think I’m out there giving out free fries all day? No!” The dashboard reads 10:35 and Steve hopes that Dustin’s mom doesn’t kill him. She almost had when he’d forgotten to bring Dustin home on time that time he’d been dragged by all the kids to the nice theater in the next town over since Nancy and Jonathan went on a date. He’d be so focused on not giving Joyce an excuse to murder him that he’d forgotten the other kids also had parents who could also potentially murder him. 

“Oh look,” Dustin said laughing as the cat curled up on Steve’s lap while Dustin feed it more beef patty, “Maud’Dib likes you. Guess that burnt oil smell works on cats at least.”

Steve sneers, at Dustin, taking his eyes off the empty road. 

He pets the cat.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Mike and Will are hanging out together. El and Max are becoming best friends with Lucas hanging out with them and Dustin doesn't want to feel like a third wheel or even a fourth wheel so he goes to visit Steve.


End file.
